LITERARY FRANCOPHONIA IN FRONT OF THE TEMPTATION OF POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

Abstract

French literature of the South, francophone literature(s) or literary Francophonia, migrant or "Parisianist" literature are just some of the names in front of the concepts of loose and hazy contours. They refer to young literature of the French language which has blossomed in "the outskirts", principally in Africa and the Caribbean, as well as in the "Metropolis," i.e. France, where immigrants and descendants of immigrants publish original works. It reflects all the complexities of lasting and multiple consequences of colonialism, along with the sensitivity of the national and individual identity. This paper is an attempt at introduction to main theories and stances of university criticism and writers themselves, who have, in the last decade, participated actively in the debate on literary senses of belonging. It first turns to the problem of the definition of literary Francophonia, and then to the position of postcolonial studies in the French university world, where francophone and postcolonial literatures are often represented as antagonistic. Eventually, it examines the term "children of postcolony" and the manifesto of "world literature" in French, which was signed several years ago by 44 francophone writers, including Tahar Ben Jelloun, Le Clézio, Patrick Rambaud, Amin Maalouf, who thus rejected the Francophonia which excludes and builds walls between these and those Frenchmen. Did they push a wide open door, in the words of David Murphy?